2014.11.23 diversion

It’s not surprising to look out at the political circus now and, now that the farce of the “middterms” is past, watch the absurdities play out. It’s not a surprise to see it, it’s not very surprising to see how the stuff plays out. Now, if you’ve paid any attention you know that the “big issue” is “immigration reform”, because that’s apparently what we’re supposed to think is the biggest urgent thing right now, with everybody told what to think about it, line up in neatly defined bipolar sides, and argue, thinking and saying what they’re told to think and say. (You’re not really supposed to actually think.)

Pay no attention to anything else going on!

Look at that, over there! Sometimes it really does beg for a little analogy to The Wizard of Oz… behold the mighty Oz!… pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!

We still have the international geopolitical lunacy, with multiple dramas running simultaneously, and what might arguably be the worst part of it, which is how many people here in the US think they know about various facets of all that, because of various infotainment sound-bites tidbits of propaganda fed them, and not only do they really not know, but even worse, what they think is in serious contradiction with what actually is, maybe even just completely backwards and inverted and all twisted up.

Anyone who follows the news regularly, knows that the media has done everything in its power to smear Vladimir Putin and to demonize him as a tyrant and a thug. Fortunately, most people aren’t buying it.

Yes, I’ve seen the polls that say that Putin and Russia are viewed “less favorably” than they were prior to the crisis in Ukraine. In fact, here’s a clip from a recent PEW survey which seems to prove that I’m wrong:

“Across the 44 countries surveyed, a median percentage of 43% have unfavorable opinions of Russia, compared with 34% who are positive.

Negative ratings of Russia have increased significantly since 2013 in 20 of the 36 countries surveyed…

Americans and Europeans in particular have soured on Russia over the past 12 months. More than six-in-ten in Poland, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, the U.S. and the UK have an unfavorable image of Russia. And in all but one of these countries negative reviews are up by double digits since last year, including by 29 percentage points in the U.S., 27 points in Poland, 24 points in the UK and 23 points in Spain.” (Russia’s Global Image Negative amid Crisis in Ukraine: Americans’ and Europeans’ Views Sour Dramatically, PEW Research)

These results strongly suggest that the public blames Moscow for the fighting in Ukraine and (presumably)agrees with the prevailing storyline that Putin is a vicious aggressor who seized Crimea in order to rebuild the Soviet Empire. The problem with the PEW survey is that the results are based random samples of nationwide face-to-face or telephone interviews.

Why is that a problem?

It’s a problem because the man-on-the-street hasn’t the foggiest idea of what’s going on in Ukraine. All he knows is what he’s heard on TV. So, naturally, when he’s asked to offer his opinion on the matter, he’s going to regurgitate some variation of the official version, which is that Putin is responsible.

But try asking someone who’s actually been following events in Ukraine that same question, and you’re going to get an entirely different answer. Among the people who follow the daily developments in Ukraine, roughly two out of three support the Russian position. This isn’t something you’re going to find in the survey data, but if you take the time to comb the comments lines in the international media, you’ll see what I’m saying is true.

I hadn’t figured this out until last week’s G-20 Summit in Brisbane when Canada’s PM Stephen Harper brusquely greeted Putin saying, “I guess I’ll shake your hand, but I only have one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine.”

The incident immediately became headline news around the world as journalists for all the major media heaped praise on Harper for courageously “shirt-fronting” the dastardly Putin. What was left out in the media’s account of the exchange, was Putin’s crisp retort, which was, “Unfortunately it is impossible, (for us to leave Ukraine) because we are not there.”

Touché. As you might expect, Putin’s response did not fit with the media’s narrative, so it was scrubbed from the coverage altogether.

Not only do we have the situation where a randomly sampled American citizen does not know what’s going on in this, and worse, has a set of notions lodged in their heads that are confused nonsense and even complete fiction, but trying to sort that out runs into the phenomenon of people who just absolutely don’t even want to know about it, if you try to direct their attention to some actual real facts.

Added to all that, or maybe I should say, further diverting attention from all that, what seems like limitless determination of the neocon cult in Washington to meddle in everything everywhere in the world and make bigger and more complex messes finds the twisted knots of inexplicable lunacy and the accompanying confusion of the general public about the middle east. There, we have the neocon machinations to somehow overthrow another government in the world, in this case, Syria, and somehow managing to both support and finance people causing death, destruction, and general trouble, while also putting on a show of being the enemy we must fight in the never ending oxymoronic “War on Terror”.

If you aren’t really paying attention, and depend on what we get fed by the official government statements and what passes for serious news here in the US now, it’s likely you still think that a completely different set of events and circumstances have happened and are happening, rather than what has happened (and is happening now). Incredibly, unbelievably, you can still turn on some television entertainment presenting itself as serious news and “policy discussion” maintaining the premise that Assad in Syria attacked people with chemical weapons, complete with American political barking saying that Obama was weak and feckless and whatever for not attacking Syria (see the infamous “red line” statements before that), ignoring everything reported that makes it very clear that what did happen was some sort of “false flag” attack designed to suck the United States military into attacking, and to overthrow Assad’s government.

For some time now people have been looking past the narratives sold to the public about the dreaded ISIS/ISIL/IS/whatever, who evidently are a nasty bunch, but one supported by the US puppetmaster characters who, again, just keep playing with things everywhere, and just making worse and worse messes around the world.

I’m realizing right now that even trying to do a brief summary of all that’s going on just in terms of Washington neocon farces in the world would be another long essay, even in simplest form, with the extra twist of a dilemma that, in all these kinds of things, there’s such a mess and so much complexity, added confusion, and plain gross lying, that there really isn’t a simple and short version of the story. The tragic result of that, naturally… people don’t even try to sort it out. People have other things to do.

It’s probably reasonable to surmise that one result of all this is that it’s an explanation for results of the circus of “the middterms”, including one item that a lot of people probably want to avoid, which is reporting that the percentage of voter turnout in the election was the lowest since the early part of World War II.

Keep ’em confused and arguing amongst themselves until they give up on everything seems to be the modus operandi at work.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 23rd, 2014 at 6:49 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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